Duplicate user account OR migrate iPhoto/iWeb between users

I've seen this question asked several times before, but have not seen an answer!
So, with as many details as I can muster:
I have, on my computer, 4 user accounts: my admin account, my user account, my boyfriend's user account, and our business account... All separate, keeps things nice and tidy (sort of!).
I have a new and separate project that I'm starting to work on which involves lots of images, and new websites, and new and different stuff that's necessary for the project, but just clutter in any of the other accounts.
Because this project started out as something my man wanted to play around with, all of the beginnings of this are in his iPhoto and his iWeb, and they're well organized. I've not had luck so far moving the iPhoto and iWeb libraries to a new/blank user and maintaining the organization that I've spent time and attention making right.
He's not so great with technology, and gets very frustrated (and unproductive!) when anything on the computer doesn't work exactly like he expects it to. (When Lion came out and the scrolling went "the wrong direction" he was afraid to use the computer at all for a week, because "everything changed, I don't even know how to use it anymore" that's between us though, personal issure ). So I'd like to keep the user experience the same for him. I'd like to duplicate his settings, preferences, etc. into a new user for him, and take over his current account to isolate this project.
So, in summary:
I want to create a new account with the same user experience as a current account without having to find and reset all of his settings.
OR
I want an exact copy of the iPhoto and iWeb from this user account to another one, on the same machine.
I am currently running OSX 10.7.2, iPhoto '11 9.2.1 and iWeb 3.0.4
Thanks in advance for any help!

Kenzishly wrote:
I want to create a new account with the same user experience as a current account without having to find and reset all of his settings.
That's easy, if you have Time Machine or "bootable clone" backups. (If you don't, you should anyway. Post back if you need info on them.)
Use Migration Assistant to transfer just that user account from the backups; it will put up a screen saying it can't transfer it under the same name as the existing account, and allowing you to rename it.
Other than having a different name, the transferred account will be identical to the existing one. Then you can modifiy them separately as necessary.
EDIT: see Using Migration Assistant on Lion for detailed instructions. Be sure to un-check the boxes for eveything except that one user account.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Similar Messages

Merging user accounts after migration?

Recently got a Macbook Pro. Love it. Transferred information off of an old emac that I had and now have two user accounts. I can't access the files I migrated without switching between user accounts. Is there a way to move the files from the old user account to my new one and just have the one user account from there? I'm very new to Mac so I'm trying to catch up (having been a PC user for far too long).
Any advice would be helpful

Have a read here Transferring files from one User Account to another
Stefan

HT4796 I used migration to transfer iTunes from pc to mac book. It had me set up another user account. Now i have 2 user accounts and i have the iTunes on the wrong one. How do i get the iTunes on the original account.

I used migration to transfer iTunes from pc to mac book. It had me set up another user account. Now i have 2 user accounts and i have the iTunes on the wrong one. How do i get the iTunes on the original account.

In Mail Preferences/Accounts/each GMail account, set up the SMTP Outgoing Server for each account separately, going into SMTP name/edit/Advanced and specify the Username of each account. The Outgoing servers must be two different servers, authenticated by the Username and Password of each.
Otherwise, the GMail SMTP server will change the from address to that of the account where the SMTP server was setup.
Ernie

File associations are lost when user account is migrated from one domain to another domain (SID changes)

Hello,
Currently we are in the middle of a migration project. We are migrating users from child domains to the root domain of one organization.
The user accounts are migrated with powershell using Move-ADObject cmdlet. This works as expected. The SIDHistory attribute is updated correctly.
Recently we received complaints from some *migrated* users - they lost their default/custom file associations. This happens only on Windows 8/Windows 8.1.
What happens:
the user is migrated and logs on
her profile loads and everything's preserved (as expected)
the user clicks on a .jpeg file (previously associated with program XYZ)
OS asks the user to choose a program to open the file with
the user chooses a default program XYZ and the file opens
when the user clicks on a .jpeg file again - OS asks to choose a program again
i.e. the settings are not preserved.
Our investigation shows that it is connected with the UserChoice registry key and the HASH value under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.SomeExt
According to this blog
the HASH is calculated based on user's SID. But after the migration the user has new SID and the HASH becomes invalid and we hit this:
"However In Win 8, the registry changes are verified by a hash (unique per user and app) that detects tampering by apps. In the absence of a valid hash, we ignore the default in the registry."
Currently deleting the UserChoice key for all associations solves the problem. But the user has to make all her customizations again which is undesirable.
Is there any supported way to fix this? Why the OS doesn't update the HASH after the first logon when the SID has changed as it updates the SID for the ProfileList key?
This could become big issue in large migrations.

Hello Petar K. Georgiev,
Please check the following article to change the registry key to change back to the default file type associations.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html
Please note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Best regards,
Fangzhou CHEN
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Taking existing Plumtree user accounts and migrating them to existing group

Does anyone know if it is possible through the Local Portal API or the EDK/IDK to take existing Plumtree user accounts and migrate them to existing groups? Any risks in doing this programmatically? Is it best done through the ui manually to maintain referential and database integrity? Just trying to assess risk here and decide if we should build this kind of tool for our customer which they are requesting. Does the Local Portal API or the EDK/IDK provide capability of "adding" a group affiliation to existing Plumtree users or would this be a bad idea?

A network account is really existing only on the server but if you use "portable homefolders" (Tiger client and server) you could "migrate" the local account to a "server" one by:
Login locally as another user with administrative rights.
Change the name of the old account folder in /Users.
Remove the "old" account locally (woun't remove the "old" folder as you changed the name) only Netinfo data.
Login using the serveraccount login/password thus creating a homefolder on the server.
Logout and back in, enable portable homefolder.
Logout and then in as a local admin and remove the new user folder.
Change the name on the old userfolder to what the new one had.
I'm not a 100% sure Netinfo has the server account UID now (added by logging in and creating the portable account?) but if it does:
(http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-12077.html)
"Finding and changing UIDs across the filesystem is a one-liner command:
sudo find / -user UID -exec chown userName {} \;
(replace UID with the old UID number and userName with the new user name to associate file ownership.)"
(A portable account must have got some "kind" of UID?)
Let the machine "sync" with the server account.
If you want an "on network only" account I don't know what you need to remove locally afterwards.
HTH

How do i merge my user accounts after migration assistant

Hello,
How do I merge my user accounts after migration assistant from a time machine back up?

I wonder how to plan what account and rights to have where?
I had my old original account on my iMac, and then I "migrated" the data to a user account, in order to have some advantages with that setup. So everything worked approximately ok in this setup.
And yesterday, I tried migrating to a new Mac, and suddenly I get aware of the fact that the rights on these two earlier accounts were important.
And especially, after doing the migration to the new machine twice, until I got the Mail working, I am now totaly bewildered what solution to aim for? How to merge the two migrated admin accounts - keeping the original admin account is also important, since my file system har special rights for that one.
Could anyone give me more ideas about how to proceed? I think I have working Mail on one of the two migrated account (with 100 000 mails or so, it seems so...). The other account is the one I would like to have.
Also I think I want to use a normal user account, not an admin account for my daily use. And I have to see if things still work if I turn off the admin rights...
Thankful for any advice!
/groundliner

Safari (7.0.1) is non-responsive (spinning pinwheel) upon start up. It will work in temp user account but not in my main user acct. I tried reinstall via comman-r prompt on start up but the problem persists. Any suggestion for reinstall or repair?

Safari is non-responsive after intitial start up. Before it can load the homepage (google), it will hang and give a perpetual pinwheel until I force quit the program. Safari works in temporary user account but not in my primary user account. I have reinstalled osx via the command-r upon start up and the problem still persists. Any suggestions on how to reinstall or repair safari?

Thanks for thinking about my problem. I've already experimented with creating a new user, a co-administrator. The programs don't crash when that account is running, just as they don't crash when the guest-user's account runs. So it seems that the problem is limited to the default user's account, which is the one that was running when I installed the updates to the OS and the firmware. Another clue is that the programs that crash as soon as they are launched are *probably* the ones that were open at that time in that account. Yet deleting Saved Application States does not keep the programs from crashing when next launched.
So the mystery continues, but these additional facts will help with the diagnosis, I hope.
Thanks again for your suggestion.
Gordon

HT1198 I want to share iphoto libraries between users but not make a copy of my entire library

I want to share an iphoto library between 2 users. I have my entire 75gb library saved onto the hardrive on one user account. I have now created a user account for my wife so that she can use photo-sharing with her phone, and I want her to have access to the same photo library. How can I give her user account access to the photo library without making a copy of this 75 gig library?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198
LN

How can I share iPhoto library between users on same mac. External hard drive has not worked.

I need to share and edit photos between users on one mac. I have tried sharing the file on an external drive but this has caused all sorts of problems with photos disappearing and/or not being able to be edited. I was hoping iCloud sharing or family would work but being on the same machine I need the main iCloud account active at all times. This is a workplace so the second user has minimal access permissions.

okay I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but i just imitated the same scenario on my mac and it seems to work fine. I made sure to change permissions of the shared folder AND the the actual photo library. I gave everyone access to everything (as far as the folder & library was concerned). I uploaded & viewed from both accounts. You might want to view permissions of your entire disk in disk utility to make sure there isn't an error.. Make a backup first though.
The permissions will not stick. Earlier iPhoto versions did allow this, because iPhoto did not write to an iPhoto Library if you only wanted to browse it, but with iPhoto '11 the behaviour changed. Opening an iPhoto Library from a different account will write files with changed ownership right into the library, and that will cause problems if you edit or tag photos from a second account. The document I linked to in my earlier post is Apple Support's answer to these permission problems, when using a shared folder: iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users

Sharing iPhoto Library between users

Is there an easy way to share one single iPhoto Library between 2 different users on the same Mac? My girlfriend and I want to be able to access all our pictures from our separate user screens without having to have all the photos saved twice and using twice as much space. I tried having a central Library and making our separate Libraries an alias link to the main one, but this doesn't work. Any ideas?

The optimal way (and Apple's recommended method) is to have the library on an external HD whose ownership has been set to be ignored . That way both users can add, edit, create slideshows, etc. that both users will have access to. Also the external HD can be used to backup other important files. Also you need to have the library backed up so you could back it up from the external HD to the Shared folder on your boot drive. But both users can't operate it from the Shared folder due to permissions issues.
OR, create a disk image of a size that will hold the library with room for expansion over time and put the library in it and the disk image in the Shared folder. Then have each user set that disk image to be mounted (System Preferences/Accounts/Login Items) automatically when the user logs in. It will act as an external HD with the library in it. Personally, I recommend the external HD with backing up the library to the Shared folder with a backup application like Synk Standard that can do incremental backups after each use of the library.
Here's Apple's document on that: iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Two user accounts after Migration from old Mac

Yesterday I bought a new iMac with OSX Lion. I used the Setup assistant to move my data from my old iMac (Leopard) using Firewire target disk mode.
When that was finished, I was suprised not to see any of my old stuff on my new Mac, so I started copying some stuff manually. It was only later that my penny dropped (Lion noobie here) and I realised I now have two user accounts: my new "Lion" account, and another one which - tada - does contain all my old stuff. Both appear to be admin accounts.
Since I already manually copied all the stuff I wanted to keep to my new account, can I safely delete the old account? How do I do this, and what happens with the old stuff? I read something about the home folder of the deleted user being moved somewhere. Where would that be?
Thanks!

It is easy to delete an account but you wisely used the word "safely". When I migrated to Lion I did an "in place" upgrade and no new adminstrative accounts were created.   Lion will create a guest acount but that can be easily disabled in the Users and Groups preference pane. Did you do an in place or a clean install of Lion?
First, before you delete anything be absolutely sure that the account you want to keep has everything you need. I suggest you work with it a least a week before making that judgement. There is no hurry if you have the space to keep two accounts. I have a spare adminstrative account just in case I need it for troubleshooting. Be sure you backed up your boot drive with a versioned (like Time Machine) and a cloned backup to an external drive.
Go to System Preferences and choose the Users and Groups preference pane. There you will find your accounts and their designations (i.e. adminstrator, guest, standard).   If you are completely satisfied that the admin account you backed up is all you need then you can click on the lock at the bottom left of that pane, enter your adminstrative password, choose the account you want to delete and click the minus button. Once you have done this, it is gone. All of the settings and data you had will be gone unless they were duplicated in another account. Your applications should remain.
That said, there is nothing wrong with having two adminstrator accounts. Some very security minded people suggest that you should not operate from your admin account because it allows access to deep levels in your computer.
Jay

Moving many but not all iPhoto photos between users

My wife and I share an iMac with separate user accounts. We'd like to move lots of photos from iPhoto in one user account to another. But after we exported original images and video from one account to a shared drive, about a third of the exported images and video failed to import into the other iPhoto account. Is there a better way to do this? Thanks.

Thanks. The error message I get is "Unreadable files. The following files could not be imported. The files are in an unrecognized format." It's odd, because they are all jpg's, they are all photos taken by iPhone 5's, and they all exported from one user's iTunes library in original format. So I wouldn't expect problems.
We previously shared a library but for us it might be easier to manage the family photos if we each keep the set of photos that we take in our own user libraries.

HT4796 why a new user account following migration?

following Itunes migration from PC to Mac, a new user was created. Could not loads library to my existing account?

Because you're using the Migration Assistant, and it can't migrate data to an existing user account. Transfer everything at once or use a different method.
(111200)

Import Time Machine backup to new user account? Migration Assistant?

Long story short: my wife has a recent Time Machine backup from HER iMac that we would like to import as a new user account on MY iMac.
No need to import apps--just user profile, settings, photos/docs, etc.
Do I need to create a new user account for her on my iMac first? Or will it be done during the import?
Also, should I be using Time Machine for this, or the Migration Assistant?
Just looking for the easiest way to do this, as it will be a temporary situation until her new MacBook Pro arrives.
Thanks!
EDIT: Not sure if it makes a difference, but her iMac was running Snow Leopard at the time of the last Time Machine backup, and my iMac has Lion.

Use Migration assistant and import her user account from TM backup.
Don't create her user account first. Migrating her account will take care of that.
Shouldn't matter if her previous backup was SL.

I want to share iPhoto library between users.

We just bought our first iMac and we are trying to set it up for three users, my wife, my son, and I. I want to each have our own email and web bookmarks (parental controls for our son), but I want to share the iPhoto pictures between two of the three users, just not our son. How do I do this?

Have a look at > iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users

Duplicate user account OR migrate iPhoto/iWeb between users

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for